Poison

Under normal circumstances, I’d have pushed her harder, but she turned the conversation into a run down on how I was doing, and when I was through with replying Lucas had already grabbed her number from me and made the call. He was on the phone to her when I finished up answering Nicola, and I messaged my parents and Vicky to let them know I was doing ok while he was speaking.

I didn’t listen, because it wasn’t my place, just kept my attention on my own conversations. But it seemed it wouldn’t have made all that much difference to his privacy if I had have done.

He looked puzzled as hell as he hung up the call and came back to me at the kitchen table.

“She wants to tell me in person. She says phone or text doesn’t cut it.”

I tipped my head. “But she’s in Newcastle, isn’t she? When is she down next?”

He reached for the cigarettes. “Not anytime soon,” he said, and lit one up.

This time I decided not to join him, and left the pack alone.

“Maybe I can push Nicola. She was trying to chat through something with me after Amy Miller’s wedding, but I didn’t want to listen.”

He shook his head. “I think I need to speak to Yasmin herself. I have a weird feeling about it. Dunno what. Slightly spooky.”

I smirked. “Not like you to believe in psychic intuition.”

He let out a laugh. “No. But I do believe in secrets and bullshit revelations.”

He barely smoked any of his cigarette before he stubbed it out in the plant pot by the side.

“You could head up to see her,” I said. “I mean, she’d give you her address, I’m sure.”

I expected he would brush it off as a no-go, such a long drive away across country, but he didn’t. He looked out of the window as he weighed it up, pulling at his beard in the way he so often did when he was thinking.

His eyes were the deepest mottled green in the sunlight, and I stared. Stared and watched him pondering.

Hell, I loved him so much.

Hell, I wanted to know what on earth was so important that Yasmin Boyle had to say.

So did he.

“I could get back before sleep time tonight,” he said. “And I could take the dogs in the car.”

“So do it,” I told him. “If you really think there’s something weird and worth knowing, then do it today.” I paused and weighed it up. “I mean, I could come with you. For the drive.”

His eyes were hard on mine. “Are you sure you’d be up to it? I could drop you back with your parents and pick you up later. Or I could stay, Anna. I’m not about to leave you anytime soon.”

I gave him a fake scowl at that. “No china doll, remember?”

He laughed, then got straight to his feet. “Alright then, little miss filth. Let’s head up to Newcastle for the grand revelation.”

So we did.

We drove up to Newcastle, stopping on the way to let Bill and Ted chase their ball.

We stopped for lunch at the services and talked about the world and life and the past decade en route.

We found Yasmin Boyle’s sweet little Newcastle terrace house easily enough by using the sat nav, and pulled up on her driveway, and she welcomed us in with a nervous smile and sat us both down for a cup of tea.

And then he asked her.

He asked her what the hell he needed to drive all the way to Newcastle to hear from her, and what the hell she could possibly know that had Nicola Henshaw grabbing his arm in our hallway.

She cleared her throat, and she looked him in the eyes, and took a breath.

My belly did a weird lurch, because I could see it.

I could see that what was coming was going to be every bit as serious as the build-up promised.

“I didn’t tell anyone the full story,” she told him. “Not even Nicola Henshaw, I just told her bits.”

“Go on,” he said. “Don’t hold anything back now.”

She nodded. “I’ll tell you everything,” she said, and pulled out her phone, and called up a screenshot and handed it over.

Lucas’s eyes were wide and wild before I’d seen it, and he swallowed, and paled, and it was enough to have my fingers shaking before I took the handset from him.

But his eyes were not nearly so wild as they were when she started talking.

Neither were mine.Chapter FortyLucasI managed to keep my shit together until Monday morning.

I talked with Anna happily enough all the way back from Newcastle, even though we were both frazzled to fuck. I cuddled up to her that night until she was asleep, then slipped away from her just long enough to use my laptop at the bottom of the bed.